Category Archives: Journalism

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The treatment needs of those suffering from symptoms of PTSD following a single traumatic event, events or situation are clearly outlined in the NICE guidelines. However, these guidelines still fail to adequately address and offer appropriate modes of treatment for the more diverse effects of prolonged, repeated trauma in childhood and/or in adulthood. Examples of such multiple trauma include child sexual abuse, long-term domestic violence, long-term isolated captivity and torture. The guidelines also fail to consider the effect of the age of the victim when they first experience a traumatic event. Research has consistently proven that the earlier the onset of trauma, the potentially worse the effects of that trauma is likely to be.

What’s more, neither the DSM-1V or the ICD-10 distinguish clearly between the symptoms and presentations of those who have experienced a single as opposed to multiple trauma, the latter now referred to by clinicians as Complex PTSD as opposed to simple PTSD. First described by the American Harvard Psychiatrist, Dr Judith Herman, C-PTSD is characterised by severe psychological harm and extensive co-morbidity. It captures the pervasive negative impact of chronic repetitive trauma than does PTSD alone. Some of its core characteristics include psychological fragmentation, the loss of a sense of safety, trust and self-worth, and the loss of a coherent sense of self. The latter is what most differentiates CPTSD from PTSD.

Trauma specialists are increasingly arguing that the lack of adequate guidance results in a lack of appropriate provision, resources, research and training that further leads to a limited access to effective treatment services for those suffering from C-PTSD. They argue that alternative management approaches for C-PTSD are needed.

Dr Walter Busuttil, consultant psychiatrist and director of medical services at Combat Stress, has a long track record of setting up and developing services for patients with C-PTSD. He says that one of the current initial problems in addressing C-PTSD is that clinicians are reluctant to ask about trauma in the first place, partly because of the whole debacle of implanting false memories, that arose in the past. ‘We routinely ask about family history, psychiatric history, alcohol and drugs but we do not ask the patient if they have ever been exposed to any untoward incident or incidents that has made them fear for their life. This is a huge training need.’

Because of the stigma and shame attached to trauma, patients are similarly often reluctant to volunteer such information even when there is an opportunity to do so. Dr Busuttil currently works with veterans, 95% of whom have been exposed to multiple military trauma, and of these approximately half have had difficult childhoods, and around a third of those with difficult childhoods have been sexually abused. ‘It’s particularly difficult for ex-service personnel to admit they have mental health problems and it’s even harder for them to admit for example that they were sexually or emotionally abused in childhood.’

It’s extremely important clinicians enable their patients to provide a thorough and careful history to ensure they receive an accurate diagnosis and receive effective treatment, Dr Busuttil says. ‘I have seen a number of patients who have been labelled as suffering from say schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and research does show that these disorders are likely to occur in those who have been abused as children, but if we are not aware of an abuse history and we don’t recognise its importance then it won’t get addressed and nor will any co-morbid PTSD symptomatology that could in turn be fuelling their psychotic presentation.’

The idea of C-PTSD is now emerging as a useful diagnostic framework that has been related to the concepts of Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS), but it is not yet a formal diagnosis and is seem more as a collection of signs and symptoms that can occur if someone has been exposed to multiple traumatisation in their childhood or formative years before the personality has fully formed.

During assessment and diagnosis professionals working with C-PTSD clients currently tend to refer three main areas of difficulty based on a diagnostic framework outlined by psychiatrist Sandra Bloom who expanded Herman’s original findings. The first area is somatic, affective, dissociative and postraumatic stress symptoms. These can all have a psychotic flavour and be very severe. Second is the area of change to personality or personality difficulties including issues with control, trust, identity and attachment. And third is whether the client has a propensity to deliberately self-harm, to harm others or to be harmed by others by way of failing to set proper boundaries.

Despite the literature on effective treatment for C-PTSD still lacking, Dr Busuttil argues what there is so far shows that a multi-phasic and multi-modal approach is required. Phase 1. involves stabilization and safety by establishing self-regulation and coping skills and addressing self-harming behaviours with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and co-morbid substance misuse and appropriate medication for depression and other symptoms. Phase 2. consists of self-disclosure using trauma focused psychological treatments such as trauma focused CBT and EMDR, and phase 3. involves rehabilitation which includes the application of learnt skills and the use of occupational therapy, education and work retraining to enhance the clients daily living.

Phil Mollon, head of Clinical Psychology and Adult Psychotherapy Services at Lister Hospital, has written extensively about trauma. He too argues for a multi-modal method because, he says, complex mental health problems are multi-faceted, and high individualised and therapuetic approaches need to reflect this.

He particularly applauds the use of treatments such as the highly evidence based EMDR, which engage the body at the same time as the mind. ‘They create a potent therapeutic synergy which can enable much faster and easier resolution of dysfunctional patterns,’ he says. But he adds, the skills of therapists treating clients with C-PTSD are the most important factor. ‘The skills of the therapist are crucial. Work with trauma is considerably demanding. The clinician needs to be fully open to his or her own emotional reactions, as well as experienced and skilled. Clients can become worse as a result of unskilled therapy – and, indeed, can become worse even when treated by very skilled and experienced clinicians.’

Dr Busuttil is keen to relay that with a therapist they can trust and with the right treatment, patients can function much better and their symptoms can be reduced considerably and in some cases disappear altogether. However, he adds, further research into C-PTSD is required to refine its definition and to provide more detailed guidance for good practice in its assessment and treatment. There is also a desperate need for the various psychiatric and psychological specialisms to meet up, he says, as it is a corner where many specialisms meet. ‘There are those who study trauma, who study psychosis, and who study dissociation. But many of these specialists don’t speak to each other, nor do they read each others journals or read other journals different to their own. And all of that is desperately needed.’

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Drug abuse is one problem, but coming off them and going through detox is quite another, Tina Bexson Reports.

Going through detox is difficult, whatever stage of it the addict is in, but the most challenging stage of all has to be right at the beginning. Making that first step cannot be done alone. It requires both medical and psychological supervision in a very safe environment. But other kinds of therapeutic intervention can help aid that process too.

The Max Glatt Unit at St. Bernard’s Wing of Ealing hospital is a NHS Drug and Alcohol in-patient Detoxification Unit provided by Central and North West London Mental health (NHS) Trust. Set up in 1962 by Berliner, Max Glatt, one of the pioneers in the treatment and rehabilitation of alcoholics and drug addicts, it offers a flexible 10-14 day detoxification. And amongst the groups of anxiety management, music therapy, health promotion, and bingo written up on the weekly schedule, can be found both shiatsu and auricular acupuncture.

Howard Malpas and his wife Elsa were first employed by the trust to do a programme of shiatsu and auricular acupuncture in 1994. At the time they were two of only eight people in the country to get paid by the NHS to perform these services. “We had a successful private practice treating business men but I felt my skills should be used for people who were really unwell and support those who are vulnerable in society”, Howard explains.

Developed in Japan Shiatsu is a system of massage that uses finger pressure to manipulate the acupuncture meridian and points, and has been found to be especially effective as tool to aid detox.

“It relaxes the body quickly, helps to flush out the toxins that have built up in the tissues, and creates beneficial chemical reactions in the body such as raising the T cell count (good for the minority of people we have in here with Hepatitis C, and HIV), and increases endorphins, the natural opiates produced by the body.”

“For opiate abusers this is great. They often say it is better than taking drugs because it gets them into a natural high, the first many of them have had for years. But it can also help alleviate the physical pain from something called ‘clucking’, the spasms and cramps they get when coming off the drug.”

In auricular acupuncture the ear is seen as a foetus of the body, the head is the lobe and so forth. Howard places the needles into acupuncture points that are connected to those organs that help the detox process, for example the liver, kidneys, and lungs. These points also tone and strengthen these internal organs that are often very damaged due to the substance abuse. And the act of putting the needles in the ear causes the body to relax so it can then start to heal itself.

He clearly finds working here extremely rewarding, but, he says, “It can be a crying place, people come in very sad. Their self-esteem is low and its challenging for me to get myself full of vitality. Slow to anger is useful too as is being able to see people from their perspective and not your own.”

Howard’s wife Elsa agrees: “You must be able to feel an empathy for clients. If you come in with judgements you’re not going to be happy. Some of them have been abusing their bodies for many years and to have someone place their hands on them with good intention is immensely powerful.”

“One of the first things people say when they first come in feeling quite scared is ‘do I have to take my clothes off?’ and when they hear the answer is no it reassures them immediately and they relax quicker too.”

For Elsa one of the challenges of the job is seeing clients’ return to go through detox again. “That’s quite sad, but so is the not knowing what happens to everyone because we often only hear the sad endings rather than the positive endings ones.”

However one of the units roles is to organise the returning of ex patients, who have stayed clean, volunteer to do introductory programmes for new clients. This has proved very successful. And Howard and Elsa have had 18 ex patients to date complete his shiatsu training course.

One of staff nurse Mike Dune’s main tasks is to administer medication to clients to help them with their withdrawal symptoms. “We have to assess them very carefully as some need more medication than others. When they are coming off heroin or opiates we use different methods of treatment depending on what they want. They can make informed choices.”

Mike previously worked at a mental health centre in Soho where he came into contact with a lot of clients with a dual diagnosis, who had both an addictive personality coupled with schizophrenia or manic depression. “The focus was on the mental illness rather than the drugs and the patients were also sometimes seen to be untreatable because they were addicted to drugs. So I wanted to find out more about why people use drugs and I wanted to develop myself further in this field. So that’s how I eventually found myself here.”

Most clients are receptive to treatment having come in on a voluntary basis but, Mike says, a small number come on drugs testing and treatment orders and they have to comply whether they like it or not. “Some of them, especially those coming off heroin, and who have been in prison, can create barriers and make it very difficult for us to help them by treating us as though we are another agent of social control.”

“So you must be patient, think quickly and communicate at the level of the client, speak to them in their language so they understand where you are coming from. And you must know when not to say something because they are in a state due to the behaviour associated with coming off drugs or alcohol.”

Trilock Domah, team co-ordinator is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the clinic on a daily basis. He also organises the training for staff in areas such as how to run groups, how to deal with difficult situations, innovation treatment, methadone tolerance testing, and health promotion.

“You need to be calm, knowledgeable about detox in general and government policies and new treatments. You must also listen to people and attempt to understand the reasons for their individual substance abuse in the first place and be aware of what physiological and psychological changes occur during detox. Most people need training to be able to do this.“

Trilock says he finds the whole job rewarding but especially the running of groups such as relapse prevention and the after care groups. Clients often relapse when something has gone wrong in their lives. “For example one client who had been abstinent for a few week relapsed when his wife died. He went through detox again then after a longer period someone else in his family died and he started to drink again. So we have to look at how he can deal with the emotions and fears he experiences when someone dies without abusing alcohol. Looking at how all our clients can sustain their abstinence in the future is one of the major challenges for us.”

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ASTROLOGY: Tina Bexson investigates the growing recognition of one of the oldest arts

Astrology has always lured the famous and influential from the likes of Princess Diana and numerous celebrities to ageing politicians such as Ronald Reagan and, most surprisingly, JP Morgan and Margaret Thatcher. The latter apparently turned to a Daily Express astrologer to stargaze for signs of future dangers after surviving the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton back in 1984. Its success in attracting such a diverse collection of people is legendary. Perhaps you’d think the rest of us more grounded souls wouldn’t have much time for such silly speculation.

You’d be very wrong. Over 60% of us not only fail to resist taking a daily peek at our horoscopes in our favourite newspaper, but increasing droves of us are seeking out personal one to one consultations, buying books and even taking up courses in an attempt to study it. In fact plans to make astrology a university subject are already well underway. Earlier this year a mystery benefactor donated half a million pounds to make astrology respectable. The Sophia Trust will be making the money available for an MA course. Astrology was thrown out of universities 300 years ago so if successful this first step of getting it academic recognition could have wide reaching consequences in astrology being taken seriously as a career.

Why? Because as with the dramatic embracing of alternative therapies, what has been labelled as the ‘new religion’ is also beginning to fulfil our need to find meaning and understanding in our lives beyond the material and mechanical interpretations we are surrounded with. Its rich symbolism encourages us to delve into our unconscious and feed our imagination. Unsurprisingly, musicians, poets, filmmakers and novelists have all been inspired by astrological themes in creating their art.

We are undoubtedly hungry for more, much more. But Roy Gillett, President of the Astrological Association of Great Britain says there’s a vast gap between the simplified Sun Sign stuff and ‘real’ astrology. “There is a very powerful appetite with the general public for more knowledge of astrology. The problem is, the only way this can be easily satisfied is by reading the Sun Sign columns, and these are very superficial. It’s like comparing chopsticks to the world of music. But despite the lack of accessibility, the resistance from the media and scientists, those determined enough to find out more do. Perhaps there will be more opportunities in the future.”

In the meantime, the increased popularity and apparent respectability of professional astrologers of all persuasions, be they Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, or Financial, ensure they continue to make a living by offering us their pearls of wisdom.

HOW THEY WORK:

Indian (Vedic) Astrology

Vedic Astrology is taken very seriously in India – it’s akin to a way of life. More commonly known as Jyotish, the science of light, it is even used to pre-determine arranged marriages. The prospective couple’s charts are compared so the pluses and minuses can be learnt allowing the opportunity to improve the quality of the relationship. People rarely make an important decision without consulting their family Jyotishi (practitioner of Astrology). And India’s university grants division has invited its country’s universities to set up departments of Vedic Astrology leading to doctoral degrees next academic year.

Komilla Sutton, an ex Bombay film star who now lives in England is a professional Vedic astrologer who works with international clients over the internet. She says that Vedic Astrology is a path of self knowledge which harmonises our material and spiritual sides. Unlike Western Astrology, which emphasises the significance of the sun, in Indian Astrology, the moon is of prime importance.

“We use a solar zodiac (connected with the moon being in a sign for a month) and a lunar zodiac (moon being in a sign for a day), and we combine the two together. The waxing and waning phases of the moon represent the cycles of life and death, transformation and change, darkness and light. The Sun signifies the soul as well as life’s mission, our Karma of this life,” Komilla explains. In fact the whole concept of Indian philosophy is that people bring some karma into their lives when they are born as though it’s a kind of genetic code.

Komilla’s main diagnostic tool is Mahurata, the electing of auspicious times for various events. It is the moment on time when the conditions are as near perfect for the start of your venture. Marriage is the most important of the Mahurata’s to be elected. Election charts are also done regularly for start of businesses, moving homes, and travelling.

“Most people contact me because they are at a crossroads in life or are going through a tough time that they don’t feel will ever change. My job is not to tell them what to do but to give them a kind of weather report as the cycles of time touch your lives in their own unique way. The reading gives them the power to understand their lives and will make them aware of their positive energy so they can enhance their life. People often don’t look at their positive chart at all, they only exaggerate their negativity. But I can’t give them the answer to their lives, they have to find that themselves.”

For information on Vedic Astrology and on Komilla and the various books she has written, contact her website: www.komilla.com

Western Astrology

Many people visit astrologers so they can be told what to do with their lives or how to meet their perfect astrological man. It will do neither maintains Peta High, Chair of the Astrological Association and who is both an Astrologist, and humanistic therapist. ”Deterministic and fatalistic astrology which gives people the feeling that they have no power over their lives is now very old fashioned, its completely rubbish. You might get the odd power tripping astrologer who does that but professional astrologers try to empower people with the information from their birth chart, which provides a blueprint of their psyche. It’s like being in a card game, you are dealt a hand and you play them whichever way you want. “

Roy echoes this. “Your are born with a pattern of things of things to experience but knowing what they are provides you with the freedom to master and change them. So it teaches you about what you have to challenge.

However finding out exactly what that pattern or blue print is, is a complicated process. Along with the time, date and place of birth, Astrologers take the position of the sun, moon and the 8 planets at the time of birth, along with which way around the earth was.

“This provides them with a unique series of archetypal pictures,” Roy explains. “Each concept has a meaning which tells them about the persons basic nature. They can then look at the charts for any time in the future and relate these to the chart of the birth and work out at which times in their life they have the best opportunity to really exploit their potential and over come their difficulties. That’s how it works. It’s very much like cooking the most complicated meal you have cooked in your entire life.”

Financial astrologers (sometimes called mundane astrologers) claim to make forecasts on the climate, the stock markets, and the fortunes of world leaders, national and multinational corporations.

Christeen Skinner specialises in the study of planet cycles and their relationship with economic, social and political affairs. she says that correlations can offer a clear cut picture. “For example when planet Mercury is retrograde (appearing to travel backwards in relation to the Earth) there are often problems with communication, travel, postal services, and so on. But the skill lies in considering the many different cycles that intersect at any moment in any place in order to understand their combined effect.”

Her clients include international bankers, publishers, retailers, stock traders and many others. The Body Shop’s founder Anita Roddick, for whom she did a blind report for the Channel 4 Witness programme, described her as “a marketing genius”

“When I work with individual organisations, like say Marks & Spencer, I take the complex planet cycles to determine when a wave of positive energy is available to benefit them or when energy is more likely to work against them. ”

Some companies retain business astrologers to help them identify the best dates for the launch of marketing campaigns. “This approach takes into account what is happening astrologically at a given time and compares that to the cycles that were operating when the company itself was formed. The company can then convey its own mission statement at the same time as promoting a particular idea or product.”

“Styles, colours words and images can also be identified form the planets aspects, giving creative material to the industry. For example: Venus, the planet associated with fashion, makes patterns with the other planets throughout the year. Study of this cycle shows how trends are likely to develop and when a public mood might radically alter.”

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The Making of ‘The Blue Iguana’: Interview with Daryl Hannah by Tina Bexson

In a strip club Deep in Los Angeles San Fernando Valley Daryl Hannah defies gravity as she gradually gyrates upside down around a tall pole, her long blonde hair cascading to the ground. A dreamy somewhat stoned smile escapes from her lips as Marianne Faithful’s “Angel” gathers momentum and she flips over onto her transparent platform shoes.

But hang on, what’s happening? Why have we cut to the dressing room? This isn’t sexy in the way we know it. It’s complete chaos. Pandemonium. There’s a saga about a missing g-string; a positive pregnancy test; and a dispute over where Nico, the visiting porn star, should sit.

This is ‘Dancing at the Blue Iguana’, a new film by Michael Radford, the filmmaker who has managed to resist any form of categorisation. And this is no exception. It offers a sharp contrast to the fishing village of ‘Il Postino’, the group of decadent colonialists of ‘White Mischief’, or the Orwellian futuristic vision of ‘1984’.

Conceived entirely by improvisation, with both script and character emerging from the efforts of a cast (including Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh) who were unafraid to delve into the contradictory darker sides of their psyches, ‘Dancing at the Blue Iguana’ is unique. Even Mike Leigh has never gone this far with his penchant for improvisation. But it offers a further deviation in its portrayal or rather probing of the unsettling world of strip tease for there’s the psychological exposure along with the physical.

“It’s not Striptease, the Demi Moore thing,” insists Hannah, (who plays Angel), as she takes an enormous bite out of a cream scone in the lounge of the Covent Garden Hotel, where I’m interviewing her this morning. “It’s amazing how the nudity becomes the background. That’s what the film was for, to find the people and not focus on the body parts.”

Though in all honesty it’s hard not to focus on them, they are in tiptop form, and this is undoubtedly a very sexy film. But every aspect was meticulously researched during the five months the actresses frequented Hollywood strip clubs to learn the lingo, the routines, the dances, the pole tricks, and the interaction with punters.

“ I had no choice but to do a lot of research because I had no idea what the world of an exotic dancer or stripper was apart from the clichés you get from cheesy movies”, reveals Hannah. So at 3pm everyday, after rehearsals, and when the strip clubs were closed for cleaning, she was taught the routines by the strippers she befriended. Some of them, mainly the stripper Nikki, feature in her documentary, ‘Strip Notes’, that she made during her time in the clubs.

“I was black and blue for two and a half months, I must have looked like I’d been brutally assaulted, but I got into incredible shape,” explains Hannah. You will no doubt recall her lithe athletic mermaid in ‘Splash’ or her acrobatic android in ‘Blade Runner’.

“Doing all those slow motion squats and presses mean you immediately get your thighs toned and it really builds up your upper body strength, your stomach muscles. Those girls don’t need to go to the gym because they’re in the ‘gym’ every night when they are working. The more experienced use it to do these miraculous things that look as though they are floating with no limbs attached, it’s sensuous, and very gymnastic.”

“I learned to do a dozen pole tricks upside down,” she continues, “you feel like a kid swinging around on the jungle gym, I really enjoyed it.” (So did Sheila Kelley, who played Stormy, in fact so much that she had a pole installed in her house after the film.)

Perfecting a suitably slinky, not to mention, stimulating routine is one thing but performing for real in front of a live audience is a real tester. Hannah did a few routines in a bikini bar but the girls in the clubs proper also threw her up on stage at the beginning of the night when the places were only littered with a few customers.

“Then they grabbed the front row seats and lined the stage with dollar bills. Most of my money was from them. All my nerves went because they were cheering me on and laughing with me, they kind of shielded me from knowing that there was anybody else there.”

One of these clubs had quite a high profile clientele: “I’d see a lot of people from my industry there. And even though I was in disguise and got away with it for a while, I didn’t want to push it too much because it was very important that my cover was maintained.” But in her documentary the club owner, Eddie, tells us that a punter told him that his stripper currently on stage “looked just like Daryl Hannah.”

The only time she really stripped in front of a big audience was in front of a bunch of extras in the film. “Here I wanted to show that Angel really knew what she was doing, that she’d been working for quite a long time, but I also wanted her to have a kind of ethereal dance routine, because it fitted in with her character, dreamy and flirty.”

“But I was kind of disappointed with myself. I was trying to emulate Nikki who you saw in the documentary, and who I got a lot of my characteristics and story ideas from. Most dancers have a really practised and studied hypnotic stare. Nikki was just the opposite, she would giggle and wave at people and carry on conversations. She’s silly and light and I really wanted to pull that off on stage as well. But I was so nervous when I was actually dancing that I couldn’t so I made another choice and decided to be the ‘stoned Nikki’ instead and just did my routine with my eyes closed. I wish I had been able to get over my nerves enough to be the way she is. “

Hannah says that she didn’t even think that those kind of characters existed in the world until she’d met some of the girls, and it was in the dressing room that she got an insight into their real desires and motivations, which she would then use later. Here it was mostly “bare naked ladies” who stripped off more than the physical layers as they laughed, swore, argued and occasionally punched.

“I was hearing all these funny stories in there. I’ve been in a lot of comedies (Hannah was in Roxanne with Steve Martin, Grumpy Old Men with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and the romantic comedy Too Much with Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas) but I’ve never got to play a comic role. I’m always the straight man to the comedian, and I thought, this is a chance for me to be funny. Also Jennifer (this is the fourth time Tilly and Hannah have worked together), who usually plays a brazenly comic character, wanted to play someone a little harder, so we decided to switch places.”

Hannah is indeed very funny. Things happen to Angel, who is an endearing and curious mix of vulnerability and jadedness, a child-woman that Hannah naturally tuned into. There’s a great scene with no cuts, when she gets arrested for grass (partly based on one of Nikki’s experiences) whilst asking an officer to take a photograph of her in front of a huge billboard featuring her in an ad for the show. All the dialogue was improvised; created on the spot from the recesses of the casts’ imaginations. The rather confused Angel comes out with absurd lines: “Officer, is this going to be on the news and everything?” and “But I didn’t inhale.”

A Russian hit man taking ‘time out’ visits the club and develops an obsession with Angel, further fuelling her fantasy world. There’s some languid scenes of her outside the club attempting to smoke movie star style, clad in a ludicrous long white fluffy coat whilst he spies down on her from a window above. “When I was doing my research I would see the girls go outside for a smoke and that was their only respite. So even girls who weren’t smokers became smokers, including myself for the time I was making the film, because its your only chance to get some fresh air, and look up at the stars and imagine being somewhere else or someone else.”

Hannah, herself, became so embroiled in the construction of her character that she would often imagine what Angel’s reactions would be for many months after the film was completed. “Where ever I’d be, I’d start giggling to myself, thinking about what Angel would be saying right now, I could hear her takes on things, it cracked me up. You could throw her into any environment, in any country, with anyone, and she would be as funny and sad and as ridiculous as she is. But I’d like to only work like this, to have time to research and be so involved in the character that no matter what situation you’re in, you are the character.”

Radford’s decision to improvise on film was only made after they had started shooting a script taken from the scenes they had improvised in rehearsal (he’d had these transcribed and made into a script). But he missed the freshness and threw the scripts away and got them to re-improvise the scenes with new dialogue. “It was a totally insane idea to take on”, says Hannah, “but he’s so brave and it’s so cool he had enough respect with actors to give them that trust.”

Still, it was a big gamble. There was no guarantee the film would be made so none of the cast would receive any payment. Then they were told they’d be no financing until the financiers had viewed what they had come up with. Not everyone Radford was initially interested in was prepared to take that risk. But he was very happy with who he got in the end and has said that he’d always wanted to work with Sandra Oh and Jennifer Tilly. He has also said that “the biggest surprise was Daryl – she literally forced herself on me. She’s so interesting to watch, so brilliant and profound.”

Hannah certainly has no regrets, apart from not taking more time to understand the male psyche perhaps. “I had so much to learn: getting my character, story, wardrobe, my look, my routine, dancing, that the one thing I really didn’t spend time doing was understanding the customer and the relationship I was supposed to have with them.”

“But I certainly learned how to move sensuously with confidence. I’d always felt kind of awkward and geeky before when I tried to act or move in a sexy way. But you can analyse it and break it down and learn a few little tricks. On the other hand it’s not a job I would ever want. Being in the clubs was fascinating whilst doing research and making a documentary, but it was hard, those environments are hard on the soul.”

So is Hollywood and at least Hannah built up close bonds with the dancers, some of which are still there today. “They really support each other which is something I haven’t experienced in my profession amongst other actresses or movie people,” she adds ruefully.“ But what I found most surprising was their sense of humour and irony. I’d often hear them say (she adopts a drawn out tired voice) ‘I cant believe this, its Friday night, I’m in Hollywood, and I’m crawling around on my hands and knees – I’m a stripper!’”

Real-life drug-busting narc Sonny Grosso was the inspiration for The French Connection, advised Coppola on The Godfather and cruised gay bars with Pacino in Cruising.

Story by Tina Bexson –

A dozen or so shiny, black suits and their flashy women were enjoying the exotic floor show of Manhattan’s Copacabana nightclub, whilst the slick-haired man at the head of the table splashed the cash around. It was a sight that would change the lives of the two off-duty NYPD narcotics agents quietly sipping their drinks and surveying the scene from the terrace above.

The man with the dough was Pasquele “Patsy” Fuega, a major player in a Mafia-linked New York drugs ring. “I recognised a lot of the others as being dope pushers up in Harlem,” Detective Sonny Grosso recalls. “I told Egan and he wanted to put a tail of the Patsy at the end of the night.”

So Grosso and partner Eddie Egan tailed Patsy and his bouffant blonde as they drove off on a stop-start tour of the Lower East Side, before heading across the East River and drawing up in front of a Brooklyn diner at 5am. Suspicion was aroused and they set up round-the-clock surveillance and wiretaps. That was just the beginning. During the next four months they uncovered an operation that had 50kg of heroin being smuggled from France to New York every six weeks for a quarter of a century.

The investigation culminated in one of the biggest drug hauls in American history, worth a mega ¢32m, all thanks to a chance encounter in a nightclub in 1961.

Shoot forward ten years, and chance changes Sonny Grosso’s life again. Up-and-coming filmmaker Phil D’Antoni and maverick director William Friedkin decide to turn the case into a film, The French Connection, based on Robin Moore’s factual book of the same name, and starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider as Egan and Grosso (renamed Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo). Once released it became a worldwide box-office hit, winning five Oscars and beating A Clockwork Orange and The Last Picture Show for best film. It had it all: realistic locations, spontaneous camerawork, an unromantic portrayal of policing, and unbeatably pacey action. All of which proved ot be a major catalyst in the revival of the cop genre in the ‘70s, evident in movies such as Serpico and Dirty Harry.

The French Connection’s authenticity was down to advice from the experts. Friedkin immediately hired Egan (who died of cancer in 1995) and Grosso. Not only were they the film’s inspiration – both played small roles – but proved unbeatable technical advisors and location scouts. In fact, they were cinema’s first cop consultants, earning $150 each for working every day of the 60-day shoot as well as continuing 12-hour nightly shifts with the NYPD.

It wa the weeks in pre-production that helped dictate the raw undertones of Friedkin’s feature. Not only did Grosso and Egan grow up in East Harlem, it was also their beat, they knew the score. And in the weeks leading up to the shoot, Hackman, Scheider and Friedkin were taken on a journey they would never forget.

Grosso: “We let them run through the whole gambit with us: the investigations, arrests, even the paperwork and court appearances so they could see us testify. In the beginning they were all shocked by what they saw.

“The first time we hit a shooting gallery it was on 110th Street and 5th Avenue, that’s Harlem. There were about 20 people shooting p. One was a massive woman, about 260 pounds, with a tube around her arm and the needle still jabbed in a vein.

“They came with us when we hit the bars and interrogated people. No one knew they were actors and we let them question the dealers and addicts so they got to feel comfortable dealing with them as though they were policemen. That’s why the movie stands up so well, they’d done it for real.”

In one of two Harlem bar scenes, the extras were all cops posing as drug addicts and pushers. In the other, they were all off the street. “They were people Eddie and I had busted at one time or another. We went to see them at some centre where they were trying to re-habilitate themselves and when we asked if they wanted to be in the movie, they all jumped at the chance. It was that which gave it a real wild smell.”

There were a couple of gun-running scenes, so Grosso and Egan taught them exactly how to hold and fire the weapons during sessions at the police firing range. “They both used our guns in the film, too. Scheider also wore my watch and ring so he felt really comfortable. He wanted my shorts, but I wouldn’t let him have those.”

Scheider was, of course, an excellent choice to play Grosso – same build and colouration; and he hit the right note as the careful detective known for seeing the dark side to situations, hence the nickname “Cloudy” (given to him by Egan). Grosso was the perfect antidote to the flamboyant, risk-taking Egan who mastered disguises such as a hot dog vendor, a deaf mute and a priest. He was nicknamed “Popeye” for his constant “popeying” around Manhattan’s drinking holes. As Grosso says: “He was a real character, way out there, and a great cop.”

Egan’s idiosyncrasies are marked out early in the film. His bizarre method of confusing suspects during interrogation by asking them whether they “picked their feet in Poughkeepsie” is used in the scene when Hackman, dressed as Father Christmas, questions a young guy he and Scheider had chased through the streets. Grosso, having witnessed this so often during the ten years they worked together, hoped Friedkin wouldn’t use it. But he did. “Friedkin loved it. So did Hollywood. They lapped it up, so did the public,” he groans.

Hackman didn’t lap it up, however. Grosso: “Hackman got all disturbed the first time he saw us arrest and lock up a guy. He kept saying, ‘I’m not a copy, I shouldn’t be involved in this.’ Then, when we took the guy to court, he couldn’t wait to get him a hot dog when he was hungry, but Eddie was having none of it. I tried to explain that we had to arrest and bring to court 30 people a month, and bring in another 130 for questioning. If we bought everyone a hot dog, we’d be broke. About three weeks later, he saw the same guy in another shooting gallery. Then he started to get the idea.”

Hackman was far from ecstatic about portraying such an unconventional and sometimes prejudiced cop, and became increasingly irritated by Egan’s Irish “charm”, recalls Grosso: “Eddie was always teasing and chastising Gene. I think Gene had a bit of a problem with the character at the beginning. But as time went on I think he found that there were many similarities between them. When I saw the final cut I was amazed how much Hackman had become Eddie. It gives you the respect you have to have for actors who, with the proper research and direction, actually become the people they play, such as De Niro in Raging Bull.”

It was a great true-life story for the big screen, but the mechanics of filmmaking meant artistic licence was employed to ensure optimum visual effect. The famous scene where Hackman chases an L train was based on an actual chase in which Egan and Grosso tried to keep ahead of a subway train between Penn Station and Grand Central so they could catch the drug-dealing Frenchman as he got off. To make it more visual, D’Antoni and Friedkin got Hackman to chase an L train which ran above ground along an elevated railway line. A kamikaze stuntman drove the car, driving flat out whilst weaving through the traffic to keep up with the train. The inspired filmic version of this event makes a great action sequence and culminates with Hackman shooting the unarmed Frenchman in the back. Then there’s the ominous and frenzied climactic shoot-out, giving a suitably ambiguous ending to the complicated tale.

Grosso’s new vocation as technical advisor didn’t end here. While Friedkin was completing the final shoot of The French Connection on Wards Island, Francis Ford Coppola was preparing to shoot the interior scenes for The Godfather nearby. Friedkin took Grosso over to meet Coppola. “Friedkin told Coppola that he couldn’t make a movie in New York without ‘Grosso and his gorillas’, so I was hired on the spot. I found locations, showed them how to search, hammered the crowds, drove cars and provided 75 cops as extras as well as members of my family for the wedding scene.”

Grosso made two small appearances in The Godfather as Phil, one of Captain McClusky’s (Sterling Hayden) cops. The first was outside the hospital when McCluskey orders him to lock up Michael (Pacino) and he says: “Give him a break Captain, he’s a war hero. He’s not mixed up with the mob.” They had to do about 18 takes. “I wanted to kill myself,” laughs Grosso. “Because I was acting with Pacino and Hayden, my voice went up in the air like a woman being chased in a dark alley. I learned how difficult it is to be an actor.”

“Phil” was also one of the four guys who shot Sonny Corleone (James Caan) in his car by the tollbooth out on Long Island. “I said to Coppola, ‘If four buys are shooting at him with machine guns each holding 45 slugs, not only would you not find Jimmy Caan, you wouldn’t find the car. They’d all be completely blown away.’

“The next day Coppola called me over, he was such a gentleman, and said: ‘I thought about what you said Sonny, but Jimmy Caan is bigger than life in this movie and we’ve got to kill him bigger than life.’ I still thought he was making a tremendous mistake, but I was dealing with reality and he was dealing with movies. Not only did I learn that he was right, but I also learned that that scene ended up being one of the most memorable in movie history.”

It was on Cruising (1980) that Grosso really came into his own as a technical expert. Reunited with Friedkin, he worked with Al Pacino tracing an undercover cop’s troubled journey into Manhattan’s S&M gay underworld to fish out a crazed killer. Grosso had spent over five years working undercover on all kinds of cases, including a community of deaf mutes (for which he had to learn sign language) and homosexual rings. “We took Pacino out to the gay clubs in Greenwich Village to show him how to operate in that world, so he could observe and get a feeling for how people act.”

But just as Hackman and Scheider would never know what it was really like to work as a narcotics agent, to live immersed in the overlapping worlds of the cop and the mobster, Pacino would never experience the reality of undercover work. He would never know what it took to actually get results, nor would he ever have to master the psychological tactics, or experience the fear.

“Apart from mastering your cover story, the biggest thing is to know how to get information without anyone realising; also, to know how to remember faces, times, locations so you can go back and complete a report. You’ve got to remember to adopt all the characteristics, too. It’s stupid, but I was once trying to buy marijuana in East Harlem. I wasn’t smoking because I don’t smoke, and a guy came over and asked if I wanted a cigarette… I almost said ‘no’.”

Then there’s the decision on whether to take protection. “You’re often afraid to wear a wire or carry a gun into the bars because women will pat you down or touch you in all different places when they hug you – they’re told to do that to check if you’re carrying. So you need to be really creative about where you’re gonna carry a pistol.

“I was once searched when I was carrying a gun in my crotch, they never pulled my pants down, but it got pretty hairy. I don’t konw what they would have done if they’d found it. Same goes with a wire. I’d wear it in a real strategic spot running down the lining in the back of my jacket. They won’t always pursue a search if you have a good line of crap, but you’ve got to have the bravado to call their bluff. I don’t want to make out this is 007, but it’s a dangerous job.”

Grosso went on to advise on many other movies as well as being story consultant on numerous television projects, including Kojak, The Rockford Files and Baretta. He formed his own production company, Grosso-Jacobson Communications Corp, in 1980. They’ve produced some of the most successful TV movies and action series sold worldwide, starring big names such as Martin Sheen and Paul Sorvino.

Still, doesn’t he miss the danger of being a cop and the thrill of the chase? At least that dry sense of humour is still evident in his reply: “What I do is I go once a month to a precinct and the cops let me slam the cell door a few times. Every cop says you get an orgasm when you hear it close.”

This article originally appeared in Hotdog magazine. Many thanks to Tina Bexson for permission to republish.

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